Sunday, May 22, 2011

Been organizing MEMBERS ONLY PRIVE events since 2009, and from these little fashion events of mine, I've met so many people from the fashion industry, some of them being my closest friends today.

However, it is still different when the PRIVE I am organizing is for friends... It becomes more personal.

I met Reshma Chulani, designer of Trousseau bags, from.. where else... Embassy! HAHA! All those Friday nights in the VIP room dancing and having A LOT OF FUN! i don't even remember anymore who introduced us, but as time passed by, I started to get to know her.

Designer of Trousseau Bags
Reshma Chulani

Around January of this year, Reshma started talking to me about her bags. I see the passion of this pretty lady whenever she talks about what she plans to do. And I see her work hard to make sure that she gets this done while being driven by passion.

If I were to choose one reason why I enjoy organizing my PRIVE events it is that I get to see how various people execute their creativity, while being extremely passionate about it. A very passionate person myself, I am drawn to that.

Madhuri, on the other hand, I met during dance practice..... YES you read that right - DANCE PRACTICE! We were preparing for Nanik's and Roshni's Sangeet, practicing two or three times a week at Cristalle's house, and just spending a lot of time together. I didn't really get to talk to her much back then but I noticed how good she was with learning the steps (AND I SUCKED BIG TIME HAHAHAHAHA!).

Designer Madhuri-Rania Mohnani with Reshma

Before the event, I met with Reshma at the Fort and she told me Madhuri would be the one dressing up her muses. Of course, hearing that made me even more excited!

I got to the event a bit late, was running around for work and still had to rush and get ready in time for the show. There were ten beautiful muses, all in their Madhuri dresses and holding their Trousseau bags!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

I woke up today from a huge night out (okay.. semi-huge) only to find traces of eyeliner leftover from the night before!

At times, the eyeliner really won't come off... I remember this one time in May after an engagement party, had a semi-early meeting with my partner Celine Gabriel-Lim and I really did not have all day to take it off (i tried though, used make-up remover and soap to no avail... i even showered!!!). When I took off my shades, she went "Wow looking good with the eyeliner!" (I guess it did look perfect still... haha!)

A realization struck me this morning when I saw the eyeliner still on and how this was like a life metaphor. We put on eyeliner to look good, and for me, the act in itself makes me feel good. I only wear eyeliner at night when I know I'll be having a good time. And the next day, when the party is over, i see traces of this make-up and remember traces of what happened the night before.

More often than not we try to hold on to each happy moment knowing that this too will pass. And we are left with memories... Happy ones. But in life, we cannot simply hold on to these memories, we have to keep creating new ones, just like how we need to reapply our eyeliner.

Friday, January 28, 2011

When I was younger, I never really cared much about my skin. But now that I am in my late twenties, I see so many then beautiful women in their late 20s who now have really bad skin in their mid-thirties.

Prevention starts NOW... Actually, I should have started in my (late) teen years. But no use crying over spilt milk.

Recently, I also discovered the best skin care product line from Watsons. Try CLINELLE! I personally love the facial wash and sunblock. Many of my friends have already commented that my skin looks radiant (glowing??! haha!)(That was BEFORE I had my face zapped... I look like a monster now!).

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Running has always been something I loved doing. Running was almost always a part of my life - literally and figuratively. Even back in high school when I used to play football, we had to run whenever we trained. I even remember a time when our PE teacher in senior year asked us to run for 15 minutes straight... with no breaks. I was one of the few who made it, and a smoker at that. Hence, the nickname Jogging Jenny was formed. (Thanks to Crissa Honey Small Foot!)

But the only time I really got into it was when I reached the age of 21 when I decided to quit smoking. I needed to have an activity to help my mind focus on anything but the craving. That was the point when my on-again-off-again relationship with running started.

In the beginning, I just trained on the treadmill, thrilled whenever I could increase the time and speed on the machine. But later on, as I progressed, I started to focus more on the distances. Then, I started pushing myself a notch or two higher by training for marathons... the first marathon being a 10KM race with my then running buddy, Franco (5KM would have been too easy, I said... So we pushed for 10KM and made it). That was back in maybe 2006 or 2007...

Running really suits my personality because I've always been the type of person who believed in hard work and perseverance. There is no way anyone can ever finish a long race without training hard first (except if they have alien genes!!). Running also keeps my mind focused and my soul at ease. So many times I've had EUREKA moments from my reflections while running. When I run, I get to know a little bit more about myself and how much I could take, or how far I would go, how committed I could be. Because running is a commitment... To oneself mainly. Then when you start forming your own little running groups, it becomes a commitment to others.

Running is a metaphor to life.

I started slow today. Did an easy 100M interval training of run-walk. I ran with pro-tri-athlete Tricia C who has recently started training again after a 2 year hiatus. She asked if I would want to train with the polo tri team (I would LOVE to!). The goal is to run a full marathon before I hit 30. I have a year and nine months to go, that is more than enough time.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

I can't seem to find inspiration... I have to be inspired to write. I work better when I'm inspired. My relationships with people are better when they inspire me to be the best that I can be... I like to inspire others...

I call this lack of inspiration in writing 'blogger's block'! And the feeling that comes to me when I lack inspiration is the feeling of being stuck.

Frustration also helps me with the flow of my writing, and ironically, the topic on 'Blogger's Block' is helping me find ways to express myself...

The past couple days, I've been feeling quite stuck. I feel this once a year when I am uncertain about where I want to go. It sucks, no doubt, but feeling this way helps me find time to internalize and think about my life and to try to analyze why I feel this way. The happy me - almost never sad except when huge problems arise (sometimes, not huge, but petty problems I make huge!) - can never really spot when anything is wrong. So I guess feeling stuck and uninspired is a good thing, especially for someone who loves being inspired. Life and living are all about inspiration. Purpose driven life.

Note to self - seek inspiration. Time to make changes. Time to shift mindsets. Quit settling.

I plan to use the days ahead to just sit back and reflect and focus on myself... Hopefully I find what I need to. Or hopefully it finds me. So I know where to go.

Sure... it makes us more productive... We get our emails 24/7... We are connected 24/7... We can tweet, facebook, chat 24/7... We are reachable 24/7... But -- do we want all of that really?

We've become so dependent on our phones, iPods, iPads, social networking sites that we sometimes forget the importance of connecting with people who are with us at the moment. I am guilty of that. In 2010, a lot of my friends would complain that even when I was physically there, my mind would be somewhere else. (Although on some occasions, I would really be on my phone for work reasons, but still... )

After awhile, it dawned upon me that it wasn't cool to be half-there. (or to be half-anything... make a stand!) And - as habits die hard, if they die at all - I knew this one was going to be hard to break.

I started by taking out Twitter on my phone.... No more impulsive tweets (hehe). I just have to accept that - no matter how brilliant I must think something is at that moment when I am out with friends, chances are, the day after, it really ain't that brilliant. I try not to take social networking comments seriously, and because I think that way, I assume that people will also not take my comments seriously... Or not look too much into it. But what may seem like a joke to me may not be to someone else. And by lessening my 'impulsive tweets,' I lessen the chances of offending others. And not miss the fun that is happening where I am at.

Then, I've decided to put my phone on silent... That way, no BBM messages or phone calls can ever interrupt meetings and great conversations.

True enough, when I became more conscious with how much time I spend on my Crackberry, and when I started to lessen my Crackberry activities, I've noticed how other people addicted to it have made me annoyed.... Sadly, I was (and can still sometimes be) that annoying person... :s